Domain decomposition modeling of carotid artery stenosis based on 3D rotational angiography

Abstract

An experiment-based computational study that helps analyze blood flow behavior and wall shear stress (WSS) distribution is reported in this work. Large scale numerical analysis of hemodynamics in swine-specific stenosed carotid artery based on in vivo surgery is presented. A pressure stabilized domain decomposition method is used to symmetrize the linear systems of Navier-Stokes equations and the convection-diffusion equation. A numerical expression of swine blood flow and a detailed swine carotid vessel model with stenosis are newly proposed, and the empirical function of WSS was validated for the swine model. Two wall models, a rigid and another elastic, are compared in precisely modelling for pathological analysis of vascular disease like carotid atherosclerosis and hemangioma. The flexible wall performs better in representing experimental conditions while the stern wall is much more efficient. Numerical results show that the stenosis has a great influence on the behavior and characters of blood and its subsequent affect the WSS of the vessel; further details show how stenosis affect the distribution and magnitude of wall shear stress in an artery which lay a foundation for further medical study.